The Board of County Commissioners approved a public hearing to amend the property maintenance ordinance in two areas during their April 28th, 2017 regular meeting.
The first amendment aligns the ordinance with current county policy, which has been handed down by the court system. The amendment would clarify that dead, decaying, or living trees would be a public code violation only if they pose an actual threat of damage to public property, rights-of-way, or utilities (not private property).
“Previously we were enforcing hazardous trees that were on private property threatening other private property, said Chris Linsbeck, Zoning Supervisor and Administrative official.
Attorney Garth Coller explained, “Courts have been pretty zealous in saying that that is not the county’s responsibility. These are individual homeowner to homeowner issues…. There’s a great deal of difficulty in trying to find a public purpose in what is essentially a private problem.” Coller expressed that they would have to do some research in order to find the adequate reasoning to allow the county “to get involved.”
Commissioner Nicholson was in favor of doing research on the matter.
The second amendment deals with weed growth. “The second amendment is to increase our enforcement capabilities for overgrown lots,” said Linsbeck.
“Currently we only regulate overgrown lots on commercial, industrial and residential zoned properties. When you have a property zoned PDP recreational or Office/Professional or Corporate Park, we are limited. Technically by code, our capabilities are gone. We couldn’t enforce it, ” Linsbeck further explained.
Linsbeck clarified that an overgrown lot is when weed growth is over 18 inches high. He also said that the weed growth restrictions do not apply to naturally wooded lots that have not yet been cleared.
As explained in the county documentation, “Under section 15-163(a)(1), the proposal is to have the weed and grass height provisions applicable to all tracts or parcels of land, if the overgrowth lies within 100 feet of any improved property, irrespective of the zoning of the parcel, except for parcels zoned Agricultural, A/R, A/R1, A/R2, County 2.5, or Conservation, which are defined in Appendix A.”